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The two murmured together for a moment, but their voices were too low for even Abbey’s excellent hearing to catch. Then one of them spoke.
“Abigail Lennox?” he asked in an inhumanly deep voice.
“Er…yes?” Abbey’s heart was pounding now, though she didn’t know why. “That’s me—who wants to know?” she asked, staring at the large dark blobs as they moved towards her.
“I’m Commander T’zorn and this is Commander Galen,” the first one informed her. “We are agents of the Bride Draft and we’ve come to collect you. You have been officially drafted.”
“What? No!” Abbey moved out from behind the counter and began edging towards the back of the shop. If she could just get to the back room where they kept the stock, she could lock herself in and call Aunt Rose to get a lawyer or the police or something. She could?—
Her thoughts cut off as her seeking fingers fumbled through her jean pockets and found nothing.
Oh no! Her iPhone wasn’t in her pocket. Where was it? What was she going to do without it? More than any other mobility aide besides her cane, Abbey used her phone to help her navigate the world. Being without it was like being without her clothes. Where had she left it?
On the counter—it must be back on the counter. You were just thinking of listening to an audiobook, remember?
Trying to keep the large, dark blurs that were the Kindred Draft Agents in her field of vision, she began edging back towards the counter.
And that was when both of the dark blurs suddenly filled her field of vision and she felt large, hard hands gripping her arms.
“No, please!” she gasped, struggling against them. But she might as well have been fighting a brick wall—they weren’t going anywhere and they weren’t letting her go.
“Come with us, please,” the first agent said.
“But…but where are you taking me?” Abbey demanded. “Please—at least let me go long enough to get my things!” She needed her phone and her cane if she was going to a new place she’d never been before. She would be helpless without them!
“Negative, you have already rejected your fated mate once,” the second Draft Agent rumbled. “This has resulted in you being labeled a flight risk. You must come with us immediately.”
“No! Please!” Abbey begged, but her pleading fell on deaf ears. She was dragged out of Rose’s Roses and shoved into some kind of large, dark vehicle that was roomy inside and hummed quietly to itself.
“Please!” Abbey was crying now as one of the agents strapped her to the seat. “Please—my aunt! She…she won’t nuh-know where I w-went! She’ll think I was ku-kidnapped!”
You are being kidnapped, whispered a little voice in her head. You’re being taken against your will—what else would you call that?
“If your aunt is listed on the Drafting Agreement as your next of kin, she will get an official communication to let her know you were taken in the Draft,” the one buckling her in rumbled.
“An official communication? What…what does that even mean?” Abbey demanded through her sobs. “A ph-phone call? A l-letter? What?”
But the agent had finished buckling her in and he didn’t bother to answer her questions. He simply shut the door firmly and then went around to get into the front of the vehicle.
At least, that was what Abbey assumed. She could hear the rumbling talk of the two huge Kindred somewhere in front of her and then the vehicle they were in lifted straight up, making her feel like she’d left her stomach behind on the pavement below.
“Oh! Oh my God!” she gasped. Her hands sought desperately for something to hold onto but all she could find were the thick straps that held her in place, pinning her to the large, plush seat she was sitting on.
Abbey gripped the straps tightly, fighting both tears and nausea as the Kindred craft rose higher and higher into the sky. What was she going to do without her phone and her cane? How could she let Aunt Rose know what had happened to her? She was going to be frantic with worry when she came back and found Abbey was gone!
She had no answers to any of her questions and no way to get away from her captors. She was being taken away to a strange, unknown location and she didn’t have any of her mobility aides to help her. She was going to be helpless—at the mercy of the big Monstrum who had sent for her. He would be able to do anything he wanted to her and she wouldn’t be able to stop him—wouldn’t be able to run because she couldn’t see where she was going!
Feeling sick and scared to death, Abbey dissolved into tears and sobbed for the rest of the trip.
10
SOLON
Solon waited impatiently for the Draft Agents to bring his new bride to the HKR building. He knew exactly what he was going to say once she got here—he was going to urge her to enter this experience with an open mind and remind her that the Claiming Period only lasted a month. He was going to assure her that if she didn’t wish to Bond with him at the end of that time, he would let her go back to Earth with no questions asked.
But he was confident that wasn’t going to happen. Almost no human woman chose to go back after their Claiming Period was over. That was because the Goddess didn’t make mistakes—when she caused a couple to start Dream-Sharing with each other, it was a sure sign they were meant to be together for life.
Also, a Monstrum warrior’s Bonding Scent was a powerful tool in drawing his prospective bride to him. It was a special pheromone that the male’s body made as soon as he was within physical proximity of his mate. It drew the female he wanted towards him and made her more open to him. The more she inhaled it, the more she wanted to be near him.
